Watchguard Network Security Practice Test

What type of traffic does dynamic NAT primarily handle?

1. Incoming connections

2. Outgoing connections

3. VPN traffic

4. All network traffic

The correct answer is: Outgoing connections

Dynamic NAT primarily handles outgoing connections. This type of Network Address Translation is designed to facilitate the translation of private IP addresses from devices within a local network to a public IP address when those devices initiate communication with external networks, such as the internet. When a device from the internal network sends a request, dynamic NAT assigns a public IP address from a pool of available addresses to that internal device. This allows the device to appear on the internet with a public address while its internal address remains private. Once the communication is completed, the translation can be removed, freeing up the public IP address for use by another device. This mechanism primarily serves the outgoing connections because the translation occurs at the moment a local device tries to reach an external address. For incoming connections, dynamic NAT does not provide a dedicated mechanism; it typically necessitates static NAT or port forwarding configurations to allow external devices to initiate communication back to the local network.